memories lost in the shadows
by Mystic.darkness13
Summary: Everything happened so quickly and the next thing temari knew was that she was flat on her back with shikamaru hovering over her... you'll hav to read to find out


_(best read with a story width of 3/4)_

**Disclamer:**_i do not own naruto or any of its characters_

**Memories lost in the Shadows**

**Chapter1**

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The war had long since ended and Tsunade sat in her office, scribbling away at the last of the paper work as naruto sat beside her asleep in his chair. After the War had ended Tsunade had named naruto the 6th hokage though he still had a long way to come before Tsunade would leave him to his own work, so for now he was required to shadow her in all of her duties, the sun had already began to set for the day, there was a knock on the door and she beckoned for them to enter " you summoned?" the young man said as the afternoon sun filled in the room, shadows covered his face as he looked over at naruto, a smirk appearing on his face, Tsunade sighed "his supposed to be learning" she said sounding annoyed, before looking up at the jounin before her " I know I said you could have the next week off but its important… I need this to be delivered to suna, it's in regards to the chunin exams" she stated handing him the scrolland a small pakage, he hesitated for a moment "doesn't kakashi-san normally deliver this each exam? " he queried before taking the iteams from her and placingthemt in his pouch " yes normaly I would get him to deliver it but his currently still on a mission… and this isn't something I can just give to chunin level" she stated, opening her desk draw pulling out a bottle of sake, pouring herself a cup " also a part of this mission is to accompany the suna ambassador back as well, so you'll be able to rest in suna for a few days before heading back to konoha… so your missions starts now" she said dismissing him, he sighed and close the door behind him. Tsunade sighed to herself drinking her sake as she finished the last of the paperwork for the day leaving naruto asleep at the desk. The sun had already set and suna was a 3 day trip "and I thought things couldn't get any more troublesome "the young man sighed as he made his way swiftly through the night.

Temari was glad to have finally made it back to suna successfully completing another mission and just in time it seemed as a sand storm seemed to begin to wreak havoc outside the village, completely stopping any one from entering or leaving, she tired and finally glade to be home, " you are right to go" temari said dismissing the chunin she was in charge of " there's no need for you to be present during the report, beside it rather late get some rest" she stated plainly to them, and they did as they were told as temari made her way to the kazekage's office. looking around the village on her way, it seemed rather quiet, but that was probably due to it being nearly 2 am, she made her way swiftly throughout the darkened hallways and wasn't surprised at all when she had found gaara asleep at his desk, a small smile formed on her face as she silently made her way over to him, gently nudging him awake. Gaara sat up abruptly paperwork stuck to his face, temari tried to stifle a laugh but there was no use in holding it in, she only wished she had a camera. " back already" gaara said composing himself, before turning to his older sister " yeah it was a success, but I'll give you a full briefing tomorrow, for now I think it would probably be best if we both got some rest" she said in a gentle tone, ushering her younger brother towards his sleeping quarts, before heading to her own apartment, it had been over a month since she had slept in her own bed, and she was really looking forward to it. Opening the door dust swirled around and she couldn't help but cough as she entered not even bothering to turn the light on, she removed her shoes and placed her fan near the door ready in case of an emergency, then headed straight for her bed, practically throwing herself onto it, it was soft and temari didn't want to move, she let out a small sigh as she pushed herself up off the bed, and slowly made her way to the bathroom, turning the hot water on she lazily peeling off her clothing before stepping under the hot water.

Temari Lent up against the wall closing her eyes as the hot water poured over her body and her muscles began to relax "kimochi" she whispered, before thoroughly washing the dirt from her hair and body. Turning the hot water off temari wrapped a towel around her heading back into her bed room, a shadow blurred past her window, and she opened it leaning out to see the shadow of a ninja heading to the kazekage's office " poor gaara" she said softly closing both the window an d the curtains, it seemed hotter than what temari had remembered when she left, but that might have been due to the fact that she had spent the last month in snow country, throwing on a pair of short shorts and a singlet , temari climbed in bed, burring her head in the pillow letting sleep take a hold of her.

Sunlight filtered in as temari stuck her pillow over her head trying her best to shut out the suns rays, but it was close to impossible, throwing her pillow across the room, she sighed heavily before looking at the time at the time on her alarm, she stared at it for a moment, a blank expression on her face before jumping up and grabbing the clock " shit I've slept in" she said to herself, throwing her clothes on and quickly tying her hair up, as she raced out grabbing her fan on the way, as she raced to the kazegake's office, not even bothering to knock on the door, " I thought you would be earlier" gaara said in a rather soft tone, and temari laughed nervously " lets just say that I slept in" she replied scratching her head "you hairs a mess" he informed her, getting up from his desk, both of temaris hand when straight to her hair realizing her brother was right, she began to fix as she gave gaara the report on her mission.

With her report finished and gaara resuming his paper work, temari went to leave but stopped, looking back at her younger brother " where's kankaro?" she asked double checking the room, where he should have been helping out with council "entertaining your escort to konoha" he told her a plain expression on his face 'was that sarcasm?' she questioned in her head, looking at her brother "escort?" she questioned, since when did she need an escort " the jounin that delivered the passports for the gunin we are sending for the chunin exams" gaara said not bothering to look up at his sister " ah kakashi-san" she said heading off, she didn't hear her brother correct her "no, nara shikamaru" but it was too late she had already left. Temari wondered around the village, she would be given no more missions so close to the chunin exams, she was suna's ambassador after all, and she already knew that it would be a smooth and easy trip to konoha, it had been the same for the past 3 years, and kakashi did nothing but read the ichi ichi serious over and over again. many of things had changed since the war had ended, and all for the better it had seemed, looking around Temari notice that it was a lot quieter than normal, was something going on that she had overlooked or didn't know about, there couldn't of been, continuing on she over head a young pair of geunin talking to each other " didn't you think he was cute… the one sparring with kankuro-sensei?" the blonde kunoichi said to her friend " oh yeah the konoha jounin… I wonder if he has a girlfriend" she replied with a cheeky grin plastered on her face, Temari suppressed the urge to laugh as she continued on, kakashi would at least be in his late 20's, and there would be no way he'd be interested in 15 year olds, but they could always dream, changing her course of direction she made her way over to the second train ground, where she knew that was where her brother would have gone.

it was already past 2 in the afternoon, and she found kankaro, flat oh his back, staring up at the cloudless sky, he looked exhausted, standing over him she looked down at her brother " you look awful" she said teasing her brother " ah" was all he manage to spit out " so you've finished entertain our guest" she inquire, and he nodded, wiping the sweet from his for head " I had my ass handed to me… It was a real surprise, he only used taijitsu" he told her still letting it sink in, temari extending her hand out helping him stand up "temari can you entertain him for the rest of the afternoon… show him around the village where there's a place for him to get food, you know that sort of stuff, I have council duties to carry out for the rest of the afternoon" he said gathering his puppets " sure " she answered wearily, 'what is wrong with every one' she thought to herself as she watched her brother begin to leave " kankuro" she called out and he stopped looking back " it might be best if you cleaned yourself up" she called out a smile on her face " shut up… I'm not stupid" he called back " oh and his staying In the bronzed complex, 5th floor room 6" he said throwing her a key " and what this for? " she asked placing it in a safe place " to let yourself in if there's no answer" she looked at her brother confusion clearly displayed on her face, and all kankuro did was laugh before disappearing.

' is it my imagination or are both my brothers being overly nice to me for some reason' she thought to herself slowly making her way over to the bronze complex, which happened to be around the corner for her own apartment, they were fairly average apartments, nowhere near as good as her own or the one's she had stayed in, in konoha, but konoha nin were never ones to complain, entering the building she made her way up the stair, until she was finally on the 5th, and she headed down to the other end where number 6 would be, she was quite surprised finding the 2 geunin from early standing outside of the room, she was supposed to go to " how do you know this is where his staying" she herd the red head asked her team mate "cause I know, now are you gonna nock?" she said sounding rather push " come on just get it over and done with, all you have to do is ask if he has any plans…its not that hard to do and if he says no then ask if he would like to go out to dinner " temari watched for a few moments longer, before tiring of listen to them, with a sight of frustration she walked up to the pair, pushing past them as she knocked on the door " hey " the red head said aggressively throwing her hands to cover her mouth as temari turned glared back at them " gomenasai" the pair said backing up till there back me the wall opposite her, temari continued to stair them down as she could hear footsteps on the other side of the door, they stopped and the door opened, and temari watched the girls face turned red before the scurried off ' hormonal teenagers' she herself "Yo, long time no see, you troublesome woman " the voice said from behind, she knew that voice "shikama-r-u" she said spinning around, coming face to face to find a him shirtless, and looking down at her in confusion, she was standing closer than she would have liked to have been, and her face flushed a light shade of pink as she looked away " what are you doing here" she asked him sharply avoiding eye contact, she couldn't believe her own reaction, she was actually rather flustered over seeing him shirtless, and it confused her why, it wasn't like she hadn't seen a man with out his shirt on before " delivering the passports " he replied noticing how she was avoiding making eye contact with him. Shiukamaru smirked as he lent in closer " why is something wrong " he said softly, temari jump as she felt his warm breath on her neck, she went to take a step backwards to add distance between them, but she tripped on her own feet and shikamaru reached out grabbing her arm, trying to stop her from falling, as a result was dragged down with her.

Everything happened so quickly and the next thing temari knew was that she was flat on her back with shikamaru hovering over her, his face only inch's from hers, there was an awkward silence as it seemed neither of them where able to move " are you ok" shikamaru said softly his eyes locked on hers as all she was able to do was nod in response, she was pretty sure that her face was bright red, but she knew if she stayed like this for any longer, a gasp caught both of the attention as their gaze fell on the pair of young geunin, standing at the end of the hallway stunned beyond belief at what they saw, and for some unknown temari found herself smiling at their confusion and discomfort, and her gaze sent chills down the girls spines, temari could of sworn that she had seen one of the girls legs buck as they made their exit swiftly and only then did it occur to temari what It must have looked like to the girls, she was one her back with a shirtless man hovering over her 'oh my god' she said silently to herself as her face felt like it had gone a deeper shade of red, returning her gaze back to shikamaru " do you mind " she managed to spit out pushing him off of her, shikamaru got to his feet, placing his hand behind his head walking back into his apartment " so that's the thanks I get for trying to help… you really are as troublesome as always" he left the door open for her as he laid back down on his bed, after taking a few good minutes to recompose herself temari followed him in closing the door behind her.

Silence hung in the air as shikamaru stared up at the ceiling shifting his gaze to temari every so often, as she remained silent and unmoving near the door, he began analyzing her, the way she stood how she shifted her weight to the other leg, the soft sigh as she seemed to be looking around the room, the way she remained unusually quiet and even the way she advert her gaze when their her eyes meet his " so " shikamaru said softly expelling the awkward silence " what brings you hear… to …my apartment" he inquired, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, pushing himself up into a sitting position, his gaze never leaving her. she hadn't answered and shikamaru sighed, it had been a year since he had last seen her, and this wasn't the reaction he had thought he'd get, getting to his feet he stalked his way over lazily, leaning in closer "temari" he said in a low voice, placing his hand on the wall behind her as he forced her to look at him " are you ok? you look a little red" he said placing a hand on her forehead " and feel a little warm too" he said.

Heat flooded to temari's face, he was too close, and she wasn't able to think properly 'get a grip girl' she thought, biting her lip before locking her eyes with, placing both hands on his chest she shoved him away forcefully " I'm just re-adjusting to the heat, that's it" she said in a rather harsh tone. Before moving a 'safe' distance away from him " so why are you her" she asked for a second time not understanding the reason behind his bewildered look " passports" he replied in a low voice " yeah I know that I mean why are You here… isn't this a job for jounin level, and kakashi normaly delivers them each exam" said in one breath, turning to face him, she crossed her arms in front of her shifting her weight to her right leg, as she delivered a stern look. Scratching his head he let out a sigh, lazily making his way back to his bed, slumping down on the corner as he looked up at temari " he normally does, and well lets just say my reason for skipping out on you in the last exams was to do my jounin exam" he stated the corner of his lip pulling up into the infamouse lazy smile she had come accustomed to seeing. temari remained quiet for a moment before smiling " so you finally started taking things seriously" she said a hint of sarcasm in her voice, and shikamaru chuckled in response " as trouoblesome as it may be, it can't be helped besides I have my reasons" he said in a bord tone, temari raised an eyebrow " and what reasons may they be? ", it was rare to see shikamaru show any form of enthusiasm towards anything " hmmm lets just say your not close enough for me at the moment to tell you" he replied looking up at her with a serious look on his face " what… no fair" she said frowning slightly and all he could do was laugh " I said at the moment, things change, I might tell you one day" he stated a devilish smile on his face, she looked at him weirdly and he laughed, " shut up" she spat, he was enjoying her confusion and if she was in her right mind she would have beaten the crap out of him, if not been for the fact that her stomach now demanded her attention " right the reason I'm here… that's right, Kankuro asked for me to show you around, you I'm sort of repaying the favor… any way since it already past lunch and I haven't eaten why not we get something to eat while I show you around" she suggested.

With a lazy shrug of his shoulders he, got up, throwing a clean shirt on before making his way to the door " sure… lady's first" he said opening the door for her, the two young gunin falling flat on their face, as shikamaru raised an eyebrow to them " students of yours" he asked looking back at temari " no, kankuro's… and it seems their neglecting their training" she said, she used a flat yet commanding tone as she gazed down at the pair, the pair looking up at her frozen with fear. Shikamaru couldn't help but laugh " quite frighten them, theirs no harm in slacking of occasionally, me naruto and choji used to do it all the time, and we turned out fine as ninja's" he said looking her straight in the eyes, she sighed and shook her head " that's rich coming from one of the most laziest ninja's I've ever know" she said in a low tone, directing the girl to hurry up and get back to their training " well it's not as bad as you make out, after all I'm having lunch with you" he said cheekily before making his way out and onto the main street, leaving temari and a pair a geunin stunned.

To be continued...

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**A/N:**_ this is my first real fanficn, the chapter wasn't as long as i would of liked it to of been but i'll make sure the next on is at least double of the first, so hope you like, if its not to much trouble let me know what ya think_


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